Discussion : Coping With Stress

Drugs — Information and Help

by webmaster on 07 Oct 2017 1:35 pm

If any students are considering drugs as a way of coping with the stress of studying for the IB and other exams, or are already taking drugs, the following link may help with information and advice. Logo and link courtesy of Oliver at Rehab 4 Addiction.

Food — Warnings and Advice

by marie on 09 Aug 2004 07:37 pm

IB, without question or doubt, is tough. When it gets horrible it will lead to stress, and one stress reliever is to start eating. On the same note, when you have experienced a whole week of sleep-deprived nights you will actually need some kind of boost to keep you going. However I have had some bad experiences with food, and I would like to share them so you will not make the same mistakes.

1) Eating sweets at 3 am When you're stressed, you're very likely to want to eat what is in front of you. In my case, it transformed me into a chocolate monster. When I started eating, I couldn't stop. This was not healthy, and I must admit it did not have a very good effect on my exterior appearance. If you really crave a chocolate from stress and need an energy boost apart from coffee, I usually found one piece was enough, not a whole box.

2) Gum is also another good way to relieve stress. However, it is also addictive. In fact it's scary. If you eat too much on a regular basis it will make you feel giddy if you don't have a piece in your mouth (this has happened to me). A bad experience I had was eating a whole pack of gum in one hour, and not being able to sleep that night due to the caffeine contained in it. From my experience, one or two pieces of gum should be just right to keep you awake and relieve stress. If you do crave for a few more pieces, don't chew down the whole packet.

Want to share your story? Please submit!

marie

Location: Cambridge, UK

by alia on 19 Aug 2004 03:40 am

Gums are VERY addictive. Especially the ones with caffeine in them. I normally chewed out a whole packet (with 10 gums) within 2 hours. Was I completely awake that night? Yea! Did I get my work done? Yep! Was I able to get to sleep after I was done with my work? No! Just like Marie said, just chew down on a couple. Keep that gum packet faaarr from you...or else your hands are going to subconciously unwrap a gum every 5 mins or so.

Also, don't ever get dehydrated. If you're stressed AND dehydrated, you will get monstrous headaches. Always have water (or any other drink) near you. Just not near your laptop...

alia

by ash2003 on 22 Aug 2004 11:28 pm

I never knew there was a secret cult of eating caffeine gum! Not only why, but HOW on earth do you eat a pack of gum in an hour? I eat one individually wrapped piece of gum every 6 hours and I thought i was eating too much gum (2 pieces a day)

Plus I think caffeine gum tastes like shit. Am I allowed to use swear words on this site? I think I can't describe the taste of that stuff in any other way. It's nasty, however I know its popular because 6slots/30+slots on a combini gum shelf can be often found taken up by Black Black brand.

On another note, caffeine is a supplement which increases the rate of fat burnt in your body and also one which increases oxygen distribution throughout your body. So don't take too much caffeine you two people above! I don't want you getting any thinner

ash2003

Location: Yokohama yo' mamma

by quatsch on 19 Feb 2008 11:15 pm

i never knew you could even get caffiene gum! Is it purely because i live in wet and rainy england or is it as we live in the county which brought the black death to the island which prevents us from tasty fodder?

I find chocolate coated coffee beans to be a fav when there are deadlines looming, and black coffee with 3+ sugars. One tip however: dont overload on the sugar or you're so hyped up all you want to do is bounce up and down, trust me i know!

Ash2003: sadly enough i find it really easy to eat mucho gum in little time, although not so great for the stomach...

ja ne!

quatsch

Small Tips to Help You Cope with Stress

by marie on 09 Aug 2004 07:57 pm

Instead of the big tips such as 'doing exercise' and 'eating well', this thread is for those little tips that may help you move on!

— Staying up late at night made my stomach hurt tremendously. Taking the occasional stretch worked pretty well. If that didn't work, then I'd hug a pillow to my stomach and continued typing my essay. That actually worked really well!!

Have a tip you want to share? Please Submit!

marie

Location: Cambridge, UK

by rasmoose on 09 Aug 2004 09:03 pm

As for coping with stress. I find that sitting down not only pains the back, but frustrates me because i'm never relaxed completely.

What I found to be the perfect remedy, was lying down on my bed with my laptop whenever I have an essay. That way I'm totally relaxed while working.

If you don't have a laptop.. investing in a wireless keyboard may help as well.

rasmoose

by Levi on 15 Aug 2004 10:08 am

I'm going to give you that advice that no teacher ever will — beer and partying can keep you sane. I am not suggesting these as a crutch, but we all must fall back on certain forms of relaxation. Seeing friends in a laid back environment is important. If your friends are into drinking, clubbing, partying etc., and you are in the country where you can do so, there is no reason not to have a good time. By denying yourself any time off you will only harm your own academic good — sometimes it is therepeutic to go and get completed rat-arsed.

This approach hardly works for everyone, but there is no reason why anyone should be afraid of going out and having a good time while doing IB. I and my friends went out every Friday night, and still did fine.

Levi

Location: Cambridge

by alia on 19 Aug 2004 03:32 am

Tip #1 from alia

— When you're typing up an essay on your computer, and you've been staring at the screen for hours...you might get a headache.

cover your eyes with your hands and close your eyes. Block all light. And rest your eyes like that for several seconds.

Use a mentholated eyedrop to refresh your eyes.

alia

by Emma on 19 Aug 2004 10:52 pm

take short pauses when you have a long night of studdies ahead of you. that way you can concentrate more. i don't mean that you should go and watch tv for an hour, that would make me more stressed anyway. just go away, stretch, lie on top of the bed with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

another thing when you hang out with your friends don't talk that much about school or how much you have done or not done. have fun instead. comparing yourself with someone else can make you miserable.

Emma

Location: sweden

by rasmoose on 19 Aug 2004 10:57 pm

Power-napping has also helped me in the past.

When I'm up in the early hours typing away and my eyelids are about to succumb to the call of slumber, I power-nap.

Set your alarm clock 5–10 minutes ahead into the future and fall asleep.

It's amazing to see how many extra hours you can keep on going after a few minutes sleep.

rasmoose

by marie on 20 Aug 2004 11:34 pm

If you're a MSN addict like me, ranting your heart out to a friend that has spare time (in my case my 13 year old sister) helped. Somehow typing helped more the saying my troubles. I didn't care if she didn't answer, I just typed away. She did console me most of the time though.

marie

Location: Cambridge, UK

by Quidam on 15 Sep 2004 11:25 am

for stress, i always gget stressful as i try to do the essays in the last minute. people say do your work evenly throught the week etc. but for me, being lazy last minute works perfectly fine with me. i hat stress, i hate hate last minutes as well, most of all i hate school work

Quidam

by Badger on 20 Nov 2004 12:27 pm

If the last paragraph you just read made no sense at all, get up and walk around, do a couple of jumping jacks and high knee lifts. You need to get the blood circulating to your brain again. Wave your arms around. You've been sitting down, and your blood has pooled in the lower part of your body.

If you've been typing for umpty hours straight and your arms went from painful to totally numb, do the above, and then run warm water over your arms and massage them until the feeling comes back. Wiggle your fingers, pretend you are playing the piano to fast music.

In extremis, have a cup of creamed coffee with sugar, or very strong tea with sugar and lemon. The caffeine will jolt your system, and the sugar will give you energy. Don't overdo it though, or you will be awake when you should be getting sleep in order to let all the study subjects enter your long term memory.

Badger

by hey-kee on 20 Nov 2004 10:14 pm

I don't understand people who've got all-the-time-going-on-stress caused by IB. If you stress, you're definately gonna stress. If you don't, you don't. This is my motto I make the difference.

hey-kee

Probable Way to Relieve Stress

by kikoko on 21 Oct 2007 11:21 am

I read about an article about that with constant procrastination, you can at least reduce some stress, for those of you who dont know what is procrastination, lets say that it is to gratify oneself in a sexual way----...

kikoko

by quatsch on 19 Feb 2008 11:06 pm

procrastination has nothing to do with gratifying yourself in a sexual way. It means to put things off (such as deadlines) mainly out of laziness...

please make sure you know what something means before you snub 'those who dont know what is procrastination...'